Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Wednesday that the United States would be receiving a gift of more than 200 replacement cherry trees from Japan.
During a ceremony welcoming Kishida to Washington, D.C., the Japanese prime minister announced that 250 cherry trees would be given as a replacement for the roughly 158 cherry trees around the Tidal Basin that are to be removed, according to the New York Times.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 28: As the Washington Monument is seen in the background, high tide covers the seawalls as cherry trees are in peak bloom at East Potomac Park near the Tidal Basin on March 28, 2024 in Washington, DC. The National Park Service announced that it will begin to cut down over 140 Cherry Blossom trees around the Tidal Basin and West Potomac Park in anticipation of construction of an upgraded sea wall to guard against flooding. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“These Japanese-born cherry trees have been sounding the arrival of spring to the city every year for over 110 years,” Kishida said.
Japan is giving the U.S. 250 cherry trees to replace more than 100 that will be torn up during construction around the Tidal Basin in Washington, the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said on Wednesday. https://t.co/v7iZmtx9zp pic.twitter.com/GaN8qbcQGU
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 10, 2024
Kishida noted that the 250 replacement cherry trees would serve to honor the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
In 1912, roughly 3,020 cherry trees arrived in Washington, D.C. from Japan as a gift of friendship between the two countries, according to the National Park Service (NPS) website.
“Like our friendship, these trees are timeless, inspiring and thriving,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, thanking Kishida for the replacement cherry trees.
The NPS announced in a press release on March 13, 2024, that a three-year construction project of the seawalls around the Tidal Basin and along the Potomac River, which goes through the West Potomac Park, would begin around late spring and early summer 2024.
The project would “ensure the park is able to protect some of the nation’s most iconic memorials and the Japanese flowering cherry trees from the immediate threats of failing infrastructure and rising sea levels for the next 100 years,” the NPS said in the press release.
